CHAPTER ONE

1. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

1.1 Introduction

It is becoming increasingly obvious that a lot of

believers these days do not concern themselves much about

the salvation non Christians especially in relation to

personal evangelism. This is evident in the way believers

conduct themselves and what is considered as priorities. The

general atmosphere and focus of Christian activities such as

prayer, revival meetings and other programmes well

patronized give minimal emphasis on personal evangelism. It

is quite obvious that the command Jesus gave to believers to

be “fishers of men” is not being taken seriously, if

completely ignored and reserved for a few. The individual

believer seems not to be interested in the business of the

Master.

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In an attempt to give a pragmatic definition of

evangelism, Parker (1961, 37-38), states that to evangelize

is to present Christ Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit,

that men shall come to put their trust in God, through

Christ, to accept Him as their Saviour, and serve Him as

their King in the fellowship of His Church. And the ultimate

purpose of evangelism is that men may be saved and added to

the Kingdom of God on earth which is the Church. For men to

put their trust in God, they must first hear the gospel

through evangelism. When the goal of the gospel is achieved,

it leads to the growth of the Church. Cecil (2003, 9), lso

defines evangelism as “the zealous preaching and

dissemination of the gospel, as through missionary work”.

That is, the Good News about Christ must be zealously

preached.

The need for personal evangelism and soul winning in our

time can never be over emphasized. As each day passes by

many are those who would die in their sins. The penitent

question that every Christian needs to answer is whether

every close relative, friend and acquaintance has heard the

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good news of Jesus Christ. When Jesus saw the enormity of

the work He told the disciples to pray that the Father would

send more labourers to the field because the harvest is

white. There are so many people walking down the street

whose life must be touched by the gospel. Soul winning must

be the burden of every committed Christian, who is certain

about his stand in the after life. The purpose of God is

that the church will be the channel through which the Gospel

can get to the entire world. Jesus told the disciples “just

as the father has sent me, so send do send you. Christians

have been assigned the task of making disciples of all

nations to the uttermost part of the earth.

Personal evangelism seems to be dying in the church of

today. People seem not to be eager to share their faith with

friends, colleagues, family members or even parents. A

recent survey by Barna into evangelism shows that as the

people in the United States increasingly embrace elements of

postmodern philosophy, Christian evangelism has become an

endangered behavior. This is because postmodernism values

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tolerance and individual truth, thus opposing evangelistic

efforts to persuade others concerning the Gospel. One may

say that the case seems not to be different about evangelism

in Ghana. This is as the result of the changing cultural

mindset, especially in the post-modern worldview. Despite

the emphasis that postmodernism places upon tolerance and

diversity of opinions, it also says that there are no

absolute moral or spiritual standards that are appropriate

for everyone and thus rejects aggressive evangelistic

efforts as an attempt to 'impose' one person's view on

others. In Ghana today the lack of zeal regarding personal

evangelism is not so much caused by post-modernism’s

influence as is probably caused by misplaced priorities.

More emphasis is given to praying for and holding church

programmes directed towards meeting the needs of the church

and believers. The church should be more concern in seeking

first the kingdom of God for the other things to be added.

The preaching of the gospel by every Christian in personal

evangelism must be seen as the priority of both the clergy

and laity.

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Jesus commanded the disciples to preach the gospel

beginning from Jerusalem to Judea and to the utter-most part

of the earth. Every Christian has his/her Jerusalem which is

the immediate environment. The preaching of the gospel must

begin from there. When believers are motivated to go out

and win souls wherever they find themselves as the disciples

did, it will lead to massive church growth because more non-

believers will be born again and the Church of Christ will

grow massively.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Even though, pastors continually plant new churches,

many of those who join them are already in one church or the

other. This is because it is only a few who engage in

evangelism which later results in soul winning. But

according to Agyin-Asare (2009, 47), “the best way to start

a church is with new believers you have won.” Also, Yesudian

(2001) made a point that evangelism is always about bringing

new people into the kingdom. It is not about moving

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existing Christians from church to church. Heward Mills

(2007, 15) asked, “Why is it that a few people get involved

in soul winning”? Is it because the Christians are not

motivated to engage in effective soul winning? How often do

Charismatic churches engage in evangelism in general and

personal evangelism in particular? When pastor’s starts new

churches, the onetime aggressive soul winning drive seems to

be absent in Christendom. The statement of the problem for

this study therefore is: Personal Evangelism seems to have

become unpopular among Pentecostal /Charismatic Churches in

recent times.

According to Yesudian (2001), you need courage to go

out and evangelise, and one can be courageous only when he

is encouraged to do so. The church needs to encourage the

members to go out and evangelize because Jesus did so.

Evangelism should not be related to mass evangelism or

gospel crusades only, but also in personal evangelism. The

target of the church should be the non-christians; not those

who are already attending other churches. Interestingly,

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people easily move from one denomination to the other and

pastors are glad that the church is growing without asking

whether they have been converted newly or they are being

lured from other churches. It has been noted however that

whenever the sharing of the gospel for the salvation of the

non-Christian is mentioned, it is seen as the duty of the

great evangelist in big Out-door Crusades but not

necessarily for the individual to share the faith in a

personal way. But Spurgeon (1995,10), is of the opinion that

“to lead men to God is the honourable aim of all labourers

of Christ”. Every believer has been created for good works

and is a co-labourer with God (cf. Ephs.2:10,1ST Cor.3-9).

There seems to be lack of zeal for evangelism. This may be

the cause of lack of growth for churches which have been

established in communities with so many people yet only a

few are born-again. Again Bishop Heward-Mills (2001) asked,

as we see the multitude streaming down the road, do we ask

ourselves, how many of these know Christ as their Saviour?

How many will really die in Christ? And how many go to

church on Sunday? This is a crucial question that needs

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answers from all believers, especially, Pastors and members

of the Charismatic Churches in Ghana.

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main objective of the study is to ascertain the

following phenomenon in the Charismatic Churches, and find

solutions to them.

1. Whether Personal Evangelism really has become unpopular

among charismatic churches

2. Find out whether Churches are growing quantitatively

based on the effort of the believers in personal

evangelism or people are just moving from one church to

the other.

3. How to revive the zeal of believers to embark on

effective Personal Evangelism

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study is significant because, though much has

been written on Personal Evangelism in general, this study

focuses on the individual evangelism in the charismatic

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churches in the Ghanaian milieu in particular. Moreover, the

study intends to add to the already existing works on the

trend of evangelistic history, growth strategies and

contributions to the church’s expansion process in Ghana.

Beside, the study may provide a form of scientific

information which could aid in further research works on the

topic in future.

1.5 METHODOLOGY

The methodology used for this research is the

survey method. It was used to gather information from

respondents per their opinions on personal evangelism and

its impact on church growth. Both qualitative and

quantitative methods were used. One hundred questioners were

sent out to various churches in the district. Interviews

were conducted for both the congregation and the Pastors of

different Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches in the Accra West

District, in Accra Metropolis, especially in the

International Central Gospel Churches (ICGC).

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Questionnaires were sent to students of the School of

Theology and Missions of the Central University College to

ascertain their views on the topic as Pastors and future

labourers of Christ. The Systematic Random Sampling method

was used in connection with the Churches and members who

were interviewed.

The Research Questions Of The Study Were:

1. Has Personal Evangelism really become unpopular

among charismatic churches?

2. Are Churches growing quantitatively based on the

effort of believers in personal evangelism?

3. How can the zeal of believers to embark on effective

Personal Evangelism be revived?

1.6 Delimitation

Due to the fact that getting to all the Churches in

the district can prove to be an impossible task, the study

was conducted as a case study of some International Central

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Gospel Churches as well as a couple of other Charismatic

Churches sampled in the Accra West District in the Greater

Accra Region and Kasoa in the Central Region to find out

evangelistic activities in these churches. Kasoa was chosen

as part of the due to its proximity to Accra and also its

rapid growth as a town. The scheduled interviews were

conducted with about six pastors in the district.

Questionnaires were sent to members of ICGC in the Accra

West District and other Charismatic Churches.

1.7 LIMITATION

1. Availability of time of the pastors to grant interviews

2. Limited time span for the interview did not allow for

comparison with what is prevalent in other cities and towns

outside Accra.

3. Retrieving questionnaire

1.8 LITERATURE REVIEW.

An overview of all the literature consulted is that

although some past and contemporary scholars have written at

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length on Evangelism in general, on the other hand, there is

scanty work done specifically on Personal Evangelism,

especially from among the Ghanaian academia. Literature

examined delineates various views on the topic. Some writers

concentrated on evangelism in the apostolic era, others

wrote on it in the Protestants and revivalists periods,

while some scholars wrote their observations on evangelism

in Ghana in the colonial period, whereas others focused on

Pentecostal/charismatic period and contemporary times. Some

Ghanaian writers, such as Dag Heward-Mills, Samuel D.

Agyeman-Duah, Bishop Charles Agyin-Asare and others have

written on Evangelism from the Ghanaian perspective.

In The Soul Winner, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, terms soul

winning as “that most royal employment”. He argued that the

most important work of every Christian is the saving of

souls, and that it is to be desired more than any other

work. His emphasis is that the increase of the kingdom is

more to be desired than the growth of a clan. To the author,

if the church is not increasing in membership, then the

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prayers of the people and their preaching may not be the

most powerful of to win the lost. Some of the important

topics Spurgeon dealt with in the Soul Winner are:

(i) What is it to win a soul?

(ii) God-ward and Man-ward qualities for soul winning.

(iii) How to win souls for Christ and

(iv) Saving souls: Our One Business.

In chapter eight, Spurgeon emphasized that for one to win

a soul; the soul winner must be full of the love of God and

be sure of his/ her salvation before attempting to witness

to somebody about Christ. To him, the passion and the

urgency of the evangelist must not be to call people to

abstain from wrong-doing, but to repent and turn to God for

the regeneration of their spirit. The preaching of the

gospel must end up in men renouncing their sins and running

to Christ for pardon. One may agree with Spurgeon on the

points raised concerning the urgency of preaching the gospel

for the salvation of the unsaved. If there is to be

regeneration of the sinner it will be by the preaching of

the gospel for the remission of sins and receiving of the

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‘new life’ in Christ. This is what guarantees true

repentance and salvation that leads to the growing of any

church. Though Spurgeon, somehow talks about personal

evangelism, he does not specifically mention why personal

evangelism has become unpopular among charismatic

Christians.

In The Evangelism Mandate (Recovering the Centrality of Gospel

Preaching), Larsen states that; “every Christian should be an

evangelist in this sense, and indeed there is mounting

evidence of evangelistic resurgence around the world”.

Quoting T.R Glover he agreed that witnessing is the whole

work of the church in the whole world throughout the whole

age. The book has three divisions. The first part deals

with Salvation from Sin, the second part deals with how one

is sent to Preach, and the third part deals with the

Strategy for Evangelism. Larsen treats the Priority of

Evangelism in part 1 (Salvation from Sin) which included the

Theology of Conversion and the Psychology of Conversion. He

asserts that every list of Christian priorities must include

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evangelism, stressing that the chief end of every man is to

know God and glorify Him. The means by which all men will

know God is through the preaching of the Gospel by those who

have been saved. Just as the Lord said to His covenant

children ‘You are my witnesses’, (Isaiah 43:10) so must the

Christians be. According to Larsen, every true conversion

must lead one to faith in Christ Jesus who brings salvation

to all men. Therefore any man who is truly converted will

seek for God in the assembly of His people.

In the part 2 Larsen dealing with the Sent to Preach traced the

ancestry of evangelistic preaching form the Old Testament

through the Gospels to the Acts of the Apostles and agrees

with Carlyle when he asked:

How did Christianity rise and spread? Was it by

institutions and establishments and well-arranged

systems of mechanism? No! It arose by mystic

depths of Man’s soul; and was spread by the

preaching of the “Word of life”, by simple,

altogether natural and individual efforts; and

flew, like fire, from heart to heart...” (As cited

in “Signs of the Times” in Critical and Miscellaneous

Essays, 1949).

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If Christianity grew through individual effort, then

the Church of today can grow through the effort of ordinary

people who are daring and passionate in sharing their faith

with non believers. In part 3 Larsen deals with the Strategy

for Evangelism stressing in chapter 10, the role and place

of the Holy Spirit in every evangelistic endeavour. He

emphasises that the Holy Spirit is the one who convicts one

of sin which leads to repentance and conversion. Without the

Holy Spirit, no one can win anybody to Christ. The Holy

Spirit gives the power for witness and performs the miracle

of regeneration in the heart of a person. To him, just as

the Holy Spirit enabled the early church to evangelise and

grew the Church, so the evangelist of today should be full

of the Holy Spirit in order to be an effective soul-winner.

On personal evangelism, he states that it has been an

essential component of Christian service. Larsen agrees with

Stanley Jones that the vast majority of Christians are not

committed to evangelism. One may agree with Larsen when he

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states that; “the days when we conducted seminars in

personal soul-winning have faded, and the books such as L.R.

Scarborough’s With Christ after the Lost or R. A. Torrey’s How to

bring Men to Christ or John R. Rice’s The Soul Winners Fire are not as

popular now as they once were”. In Ghana, it is doubtful of

many Christians or pastors have read Heward-Mills’ book: Win

the Lost at all Cost. The lost of interest in personal evangelism

is echoed by Osborn (1963.ed, 94) that while the traditional

churches are losing members, a sect was growing consistently

due to their emphasis on personal evangelism.

In Evangelism and Missions (2007), Dag Heward-Mills’

passion for souls and the drive for soul winning and church

planting are seen through it. Stressing the importance of

evangelism, Heward-Mills reiterates what Torreys and others

said earlier. He concludes that any church that lacks the

passion of evangelism is losing its focus and core mandate.

To him, every Christian has been called first and foremost

to be an instrument through which God can reconcile the

world unto Himself. Being passionate about Soul winning,

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Heward Mills challenges pastors to be seriously involved in

soul winning if they want their churches to grow. In the

second chapter of the book, he emphasized on the need to

focus on Evangelism for Church growth as he states; “A good

pastor is the one who seeks and saves the lost and the

ultimate goal of every minister is to win the lost to

Christ” (Heward-Mills, 2007, 9). Thus, basing his belief on

the Scriptures of 1 Timothy 1:15 which says “Christ Jesus

came to the world to save those who are sinners”

Heward-Mills is of the opinion that many pastors are

just polishing “old coins” instead of looking out for “new

ones”. This is evident in the movement of people from one

church to the other without real conversion. He points out

that there is a vast field of harvest that is ripe;

Christians should therefore move into action and stop

dealing with those who are already save in the church. One

may agree with him entirely on his call on the church to

emphasize on evangelism (going out of the church to win

souls) as the right direction, but then we should not lose

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sight of the fact that there are so many people in the

church who are still not born-again. Though Heward-Mills

dealt with evangelism in general, he seems to have touched

more on personal evangelism from a Ghanaian theologian’s

perspective.

In Evangelism Crusade Planning & Church Planting, though Bishop

Agyin-Asare’s concentration is on using crusades to win

souls for Christ, the crucial importance of personal

evangelism in church planting is not left out in the book.

He treats the topic by saying that the best way to start a

church is with new believers that one has won through

personal evangelism, and has assembled them into a bible

study or cell group. He furthermore states that the group

can mature, and transformed into a church through ongoing

process of evangelism. Moreover, without losing sight of the

diversities of evangelism’s approaches, with much buoyancy,

Agyin-Asare asserts that other forms of personal evangelism

that boost church planting include house-to-house

witnessing, community dawn preaching, marketplace

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evangelism, street preaching, social service and many

others. Though he sees the internet and the mass media as

good tools for evangelism, he remarks the challenges

associated with it when it comes to congregating the people

to form a church.

Furthermore, his awareness of most Christians’

difficulties in undertaking personal evangelism has led him

to give insightful tips on one-on-one evangelism and

systematic presentation of the gospel to unbelievers, in

order to help both neophytes and veteran soul-winners to

effectively engage in the act. Though Bishop Agyin-Asare

does not specifically devote the entire book on personal

evangelism, his chapter on it is invaluable information on

the subject, and therefore confirms the core importance of

personal evangelism in church planting and in its growth.

In A Call to Effective evangelism, being alarmed of

contemporary Christians’ preoccupation with their personal

prosperity, breakthroughs and miracles, Agyeman-Duah asserts

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that peoples’ focus are shifted away from carrying out the

salvation message that Jesus Christ has entrusted to all

christians by way of effective personal evangelism.

Without losing sight of the numerous distractions that

modern day christians are faced with on daily bases,

Agyeman-Duah advocates that christians must make conscious

efforts in an urgent manner to carry out the command of

Jesus Christ if we ever plan to do anything for Him and His

kingdom, for procrastination will make us to lose our

heavenly blessings attached to obeying the great commission

in Matthew 28:19.

In a scholarly manner, Agyeman-Duah has divided his

book into eleven chapters. The first chapter deals with

soul-winning. He has carefully defined what evangelism is

about, the qualities of the soul-winner, meditative

questions and the types of evangelism. In the second

chapter, Agyeman-Duah’s awareness of shallow Christians, has

led him to deal with how to become a world-class Christian.

The third chapter talk about how to guide a conversation

toward Jesus. In the chapter, his knowledge of peoples’

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inability to lead conversation that will finally bring

people to Christ led him to treat a step by step approach

that will help Christians or soul-winners to arrive at that

objective. In the chapter four, he alerts Christians on

possible hindrances or barriers in witnessing. Chapter five

gives seven reasons why Christians should devote themselves

to evangelism. He emphasizes that the Christian’s life-motto

is: “one way! One job” that is, the one way is Jesus, and

the one job is soul-winning. He enumerates the various

reasons and the Christian blessings that are associated with

one’s devotion to evangelism. In chapter six, he gives very

crucial practical tips in evangelism that will help soul-

winners to convert unbelievers to Christ with ease. Four

techniques of presenting the Gospel are illustrated in the

chapter seven in order to help the soul-winner to lead

people to Christ in 20-30 minutes, so as to avoid boredom.

In the chapter eight, Agyeman-Duah alerts soul-winners

of some questions and excuses that they are likely to face

in the course of evangelism, but then he provides some ways

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to handle them. To enable the soul-winner to help the new

believer to become sure of his or her salvation, he treats

assurance of salvation goal in chapter nine. The last but

one chapter concentrates on how to establish new-believer in

basic Christian doctrines through follow-up. And finally, in

the eleventh chapter, Agyeman-Duah carefully leads the soul-

winner to a proper understanding of Jesus’ example of a

discipleship ministry. It is clearly observed that among all

the literatures consulted from local writers, it is Agyeman-

Duah who systematically teaches the soul-winner how to win

souls for Christ without sweat through personal evangelism.

His approach to the topic clearly shows his passion for the

lost. He also sees personal evangelism as the key to

effective church growth.

1.9 ORGANIZATION OF THE WORK:

The first chapter focuses on the background of the

study: the introduction, the statement of the problem, the

objective, the relevance of the study, methodology and

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hypothesis, the scope and the limitations. The second

chapter dealt with the New Testament meaning of evangelism,

overview on Biblical foundations for evangelism, the

approaches of some Ghanaian Pentecostal and Charismatic

Churches on evangelism. Moreover, the role of Personal

Evangelism in church growth, the role of the Holy Spirit in

Evangelism, Follow-up and Discipleship are examined in this

chapter. In the third chapter, the methodology adopted for

the study is presented and the fourth chapter discusses the

findings and data analysis. Chapter five presents the

summary, conclusion and recommendation.

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CHAPTER TWO

PERSONAL EVANGELISM

2.1 Introduction

Throughout church history, (from the days of the

days of the apostles till date), the Lord has anointed

individuals who have been examples of passionate evangelism

with courage and integrity. Even though these ones have not

been faultless in their desire to see the lost saved through

the gospel, they have provided basis to carry on the gospel

passionately and has been examples to their own and

succeeding generations. They have thought and shown how

evangelism can be done in a biblical manner. Their zeal was

to see the Master’s job done and done well. Response to

Christ calls, to go and make disciples, challenged them not

to settle for anything less than what God has called them to

do. We cannot but to follow them and share the gospel with a

lost world.

2.2 The New Testament Meaning of Evangelism:

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In Matt 4:19, Jesus introducing the assignment and

purpose of calling the disciples said “Follow Me, and I will

make you fishers of men” (c f Matt. 4:19). The assignment

was that they must go out and search for men just as the

fishermen goes out to fish at sea. The world is the sea, and

the men in the world are the fishes. This is the heartbeat

of God; to see that all men will come to the saving

knowledge of salvation through Jesus Christ. This is essence

of evangelism.

Even though the term evangelism is not mentioned in the

New Testament, it comes from the Greek word “euvaggeli,zw”

which means “I preach the good news" (Bible Works.6, UBS

Greek Dictionary). According to Green (1970, 56), “euvagge,lion,

meaning good news or gospel, was a word in the Greek world to

announce victory or to express gratitude for victory, though the

term had wider applications denoting glad tidings”. The good news

is that Jesus has overcome the devil in order to redeem man unto

God. Also “euvaggelisth,j” meaning an evangelist refers to

one who preaches the good news. The Apostle Paul telling

Timothy to do the work of an evangelist denotes, “he must

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preach the good news” (2nd Tim.4:5). Another Greek word

which is link to evangelism is “khru,ssw”; to proclaim,

make known or preach. The good news of the kingdom must be

proclaimed for all to hear (Matt.4:23). One may not

necessarily be a preacher to proclaim the good news, he may

be a witness. According to Warren (1976, 65), “those

ordinary simple Christians who were scattered after the

death of Stephen were certainly not preachers in any

accepted sense of the word. They told about Jesus”. Acts

1:8 says …ye shall be witnesses unto me…” Another word

“marture,w” means to bear witness or testify, and this is

link to the gospel (ibid). The believer has to testify of

the things he/she has seen and heard from the Lord (Luke

24:48).

2.3 Foundation of Biblical (New Testament) Evangelism:

Evangelism (preaching of the good news), is based on

the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is

made up of the Birth, Death and Resurrection as stated in

1st Cor. 15:3-4. The purpose of evangelism is to proclaim

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the Good News to all people leading them to Christ.

According to Coleman, “The good news is that, God himself has

personally intervened in human history through the mighty

conquest of Jesus Christ (see John 3:16). Making this fact known

is evangelism.” Bashan (1980, 222) added that “biblical

evangelism has the purpose of leading sinners to accept

Christ as their own Savior, preaching that Jesus is our only

Savior who died on the cross to forgive our sins and that we

are to wait upon the Lord serving Him in our daily lives”.

In Jesus’ own words to explain the purpose of His coming to

the earth He said, “Today salvation has come to this house,

because he, too, is a son of Abraham. As stated in the

gospel, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save

that which was lost’’ (Luke 19:10). This was the mission of

Jesus while on earth and it must be the mission of the

Church. Johnson (2009, 1), on Christian evangelism states;

“Notice that the focus of the mission of Jesus was

clearly on lost souls. However, this emphasis on

lost souls is sometimes waning in our churches

today. In the wake of the discipleship movement,

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our churches are now moving toward an emphasis on

spiritual disciplines. It may be that the priority

of Jesus’ example, as well as His evangelistic

mandate for the church, has been downgraded to

compete with other spiritual disciplines, such as

journaling, and silence and solicitude.”

Evangelism therefore has its foundation in the Person

of Christ and what He has done for the world; saving the

world from the power of sin and reconciling man to God. This

is the message of the Great Commission which must be carried

to the entire world before the second coming of Christ

(Matt. 24:14).

2.4 Evangelistic Approaches of Some Ghanaian Pentecostal/

Charismatic Churches:

An article by Allan Anderson of the Centre for Missiology

and World Christianity states that, “From its beginning, the

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Pentecostal movement was characterized by an emphasis on

Evangelistic outreach, and Pentecostal mission strategy

placed evangelism as its highest priority. To them,

evangelism meant to go out and reach the ‘lost’ for Christ

in the power of the Holy Spirit” (Anderson, Evangelism and the

Growth of Pentecostalism In Africa). The Ghanaian Pentecostals are

no exception of the characteristics described above. Since

its birth, the church has placed evangelism at the top of

its priority as a means of its mission in reaching the non-

christians. According to Koduah (2004, 57), “the combine

efforts of the mainline and the Pentecostal churches led to

aggressive evangelizing which won many people to Christ.” In

respect to the Ghanaian Pentecostal Missiology, Larbi (2004)

is also of the opinion that there is no essential difference

between the Classical Pentecostals and the Neo-Pentecostals.

They are all following after the New Testament pattern of

evangelism and the primal understanding of spirit-force.

Below are some various types of evangelism styles of some of

the Classical and Neo-Pentecostals in Ghana.

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2.4.1 The Classical Pentecostal (Church of Pentecost, Christ

Apostolic Church and the Apostolic Church of Ghana) Style of

Evangelism.

The birth of Pentecostalism in Ghana can be traced to

the pioneering work of Peter Anim who is seen as the father

of Pentecostalism in Ghana (1890-1984). According to Larbi,

(2001, 99), eventhough Anim was a Presbyterian, he was

influenced by The Sword of the Spirit, a religious periodic which

was in circulation in the country, edited by Pastor A. Clark

of the Faith Tabernacle Ministry. This led to his survering

relationship with the parent Church and forming a branch of

the church in Ghana. Out of Anim’s organization emerged

three of the four leading classical Pentecostal churches in

the country: the Christ Apostolic, the Church of Pentecost,

and the Apostolic Church (Ibid 69). Larbi says there were

“great stirings” or “renewal movements” in Ghana that

coloured the face of Christianity and usshered in new

Christian spirituality. These movements can be traced to the

periods :1900-1970 and 1970-1990.(Ibid 57).

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Even though the emergence of Charismatic’s (Neo-

Pentecostalism) initially posed a challenge to the Classical

Pentecostals due to their Liberation theology which seemed

appealing to the society, Larbi is of the view that “the

Classical Pentecostals have been able to sustain their

numerical growth partly because of their strong sense of

mission, their assertiveness in evangelism, their fervent

prayer in support of their primal mission, evangelism, and

their continues appeal to the primal aspirations in their

evangelistic strategy” (ibid. 428). In the words of Saayman

(1993, 32,51 ), “ Pentecostal churches all over the world

were missionary by nature, and the dichotomy between

‘church’ and ‘missiom’ that for long plagued other

Christian churches did not exist. This ‘central missiology

thrust’ was clearly a ‘strong point in Pentecostalism’ and

central to its existence.” This was what has help the

classical Pentecostals to still grow irrespective of the

challenge poised by the neo-Pentecostals.

32

One of the indigenous Pentecostal Churches which is

flourishing in Ghana is the Church of Pentecost (CoP). It

was started by James McKeon; a missionary sent to assist

Peter Anim who has then affiliated to the UK Apostolic

Church. He arrived in Ghana on March 2nd 1937 but later

broke relationship with Peter Anim due to some doctrinal

misunderstandings (Ibid 108-110). This separation occurred

in 1952 and led Anim to form the Christ Apostolic Church

while McKeon formed the Gold Coast Apostolic Church which

later became the Church of Pentecost in 1962 (ibid 110-111).

The evangelistic strategy of the Church of Pentecost is used

in this study to represent that of the three Classical

Pentecostals. This is because since these all came from the

same source, there are just some little differences, and

wherever these differences are in their operations, it will

be highlighted.

At its early stages, the CoP was aggressive in its

evangelistic drive and had various means of evangelism. For

example, it has a Witness Movement which propagates the

33

gospel which was formed as late as 1940 as a Young People’s

Movement (Larbi 200, 183). Its main aim is to mobilize and

train the youths for evangelism. In the Paper Presented at

the West Africa Consultation of Edinburgh 2010 at the Akrofi-Christaller

Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture; Asamoah-Gyadu (2009)

stated; “The CoP has very rigorous evangelistic programmes

in both urban and rural Ghana. The CoP Witness Movement, the

Pentecost Students’ Association (PENSA) and the Women’s

Fellowship are all evangelistic groups that target specific

constituencies for mission.”

One of the ways in which Pentecostals carry the gospel to

the non Christians is through the sharing of testimonies. It

plays an important role in the evangelistic activities of

the church. According to Asamoah-Gyadu, “The testimonies of

life-changing encounters with God that participants are

prepared to share, accounts in large measure for the success

of Pentecostalism in Christian mission”. He quoted Cox

recounting his experience with Pentecostals even as a

researcher and states:

34

I rarely had any trouble getting Pentecostals to

tell me about their faith. They talk about it at

the slightest provocation…. Part of what made my

work so easy and enjoyable is that Pentecostals

tend to be very happy about their faith and they

want you to share that happiness. (As cited in The

Promise is for you and your Children: Pentecostal Spirituality,

Mission and Discipleship in Africa).

This is evident in the life of CoP which has a specific

group task for the witnessing of the gospel as ordered by

Jesus in Acts 1:8.

Another of the type of evangelism used by the Church of

Pentecost (Classical Pentecostals) is Religious Conventions. The

convention serves two purposes. First, it is a means of

strengthen the members of the church in their faith, and

secondly as a means of winning souls to the faith. It has

been part of the evangelistic drives of the CoP. According

to Larbi (2001, 177), “Regular evangelistic campaigns

characterized the early days of McKeon’s organization.”

35

Some of these campaigns were in the form of conventions.

Through the conventions many were won to the faith as new

converts.” Conventions still play an important role in the

life of Pentecostals in Ghana. These are usually held on

Easter season in the districts and regional centres.

Evangelistic Crusade is another way of evangelizing to

the non-christians. These have been used as a means of

propagating the gospel from the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2.

During an evangelistic crusade, many people are gathered at

a particular place and preached to. This is like what

happened in the account of Luke in Acts. According to

Schnabel (2004, 404), the first evangelistic sermon in in

the book of Acts was preached on the Day of Pentecost. “The

Pentecost pilgrims are shaken when Peter explain that Jesus,

who had been crucified, was the Messiah, the promised son of

David, that he rose from the dead and that he is the Lord

who has poured out the Spirit of the last days.” What took

place on the day of Pentecost even though cannot be said to

be an evangelistic crusade in the real sesne because it was

36

not planned ahead of time, but it can be likened to an

Evangelistic Crusade because there were a number of people

gathered at one place and the Apostle Peter preached to

them.

Prayer has been an integral part of the Church from her

birth. Schnabel (2004, 415), commenting on the importance of

prayer in connection with evangelism, under the topic

Priotities and Convictions of the Jerusalem Apostles stated: “Prayer did

not initiate the mission of the disciples, it is not the

primary pressupposition of their mission, but it is

mentioned at key points in the history and missionary work

of the early Church”. Furthermore, he by pointed out events

when prayer was part of their missionary approach as

follows:

(1) Before the feast of Pentecost the followers of

Jesus wait for the fulfilment of Jesus’ promise of

the Sprit while praying (Acts 1:14). (2)The

disciples pray during the election of the twelth

apostle (Acts 1:24-25) (3) prayer as part of the

fundamental priorities of the leadership of the

37

church (Acts6:4). (4) The Samaria mission was

accompanied by prayer for the recepton of the Holy

Sprit (Acts 8:15). (5) The conversion of Paul of

Tarsus is linked to prayer (Acts9:11).

(6) The reaction of the Jerusalem church to

external pressure and God’s intervention is prayer

(Acts 4:23-31).

In furthering his point he agrees that “the community

of believers who are united in prayer form the place where

salvation in history is interpreted. The church that prays

is the location where the sacred Scriptures are interpreted,

where Christians “recognise the structural congruence of

the history of the church with Israel’s prophecy and with

Jesus’ history, thus being under the guidiance of God, the

Creator, the Lord of History.” The classical Pentecostal’s

have Prayer and Retreat centres as a means of winning souls into

the church.

Whereas it is agreed by scholars that the Neo-

Pentecostals benefitted from the mainline churches, the same

38

cannot be said of the Classical Pentecostals. Rather they

emphasied on the evangelism and the reliance of the Holy

Spirit and was seen as making less contributions to social

activities and theological training. Even though this became

a source of criticzing them; Koduah (2004, 55) is of the

opinion that in order not for the Pentecostal churches to

loose focus, “Rather they should remain focused by

continually emphasizing evangelism and reliance on the Holy

Spirit so that evangelism and reliance on the Holy are not

sacrificed on the altar of formal theological training and

social action.” Even though the author agrees that

Pentecostals won many of the converts from African

Traditional Religion, he is aware of the fact that some of

their converts also came from the mainline churches seeking

fresh touch of the Spirit (Ibid 57).

2.4.2 The Birth of Charismatic (Neo-Pentecostal) in Ghana

and their Style of Evangelism

Out of the two periods (1900-1970 and 1970-1990) came

the Mainline Evangelical Pentecostal movement which gave

39

birth to the Neo-Pentecostal movement popularly referred to

as the Charismatic movement in Ghana in 1970’s. During this

period, the revivals led to the formation of various non-

denominational evangelistic associations. Kingsley Larbi

agrees with Dovlo that “the evangelical fellowships existing

in the country at the time around or before the 1970’s were

the initial source of membership for the Neo-Pentecostal

churches” (as cited in E. Dovlo 1992. “ Comparative Overview of

Independent and Charismtic Ministries” Trinity Journal of Church and Theology,

60). Thus the Charismatic Movement profitted from the

mainline churches in terms of the huge numbers that flocked

to these movements.

Even though Larbi agreed with Dovlo, yet his interview

later with Obeng-Darko proved otherwise with this

statement: “the concept of personal salvation and personal

evangelism was emphasised in the early c.a1970 to1978 (ibid

296). The era of evangelism stressed on personal and

collective evangelization of non Christians.” This led to

many young men and women winning others for Christ. The

challenge here is whether that same passion and zeal is

40

still at work in the churches today. Winning others for

Christ, especially friends became a major preoccupation for

students who were attending the Scripture Unions in their

respective schools. This agrees with what Weerasingha (2005,

3) said: “winning of souls, sharing his faith, talking about

Christ and creating opportunities to do so has not been the

obsession of the Christian. But this must be the passion of

every Christian.”

The passion for souls and the emphasis on Personal

Evangelism was what increased the membership of

International Central Gospel Church within a short time at

the Baden Powel Memorial Hall. According to Larbi (2001,

338)

“I C G C which was started in 1984 by only twenty

young people with Otabil as its leader grew in

membership in 1987 within one week from seven-

hundred (700) to one thousand-five hundred (1500)

because of the emphasis on personal evangelism

code-named “house to house”.

41

The emphasis on evangelism continued into 1987

after the church had started running two services

every Sunday. Those attending the second service

would conduct a house to house coordinated

evangelism programme beforehand. Those attending

the first would conduct a similar exercise

afterwards. Through such methods, in April 1987

the church increased its membership from700 to

1500 in a week”.

The above quotation shows that I C G C laid much

emphasis on Personal Evangelism at its early stages. As a

result, it grew faster within a short period. As to whether

the Church still lays emphasis on Personal Evangelism for

its growth is one of the purposes of this study. The

dramatic growth of I C G C in 1987 within a week was as the

result of the motivation to win the lost at all cost.

According to Weerasingha (2005), motivation is very

important if we are to get every church member involved in

soul winning. He says that when we refer to motivation in

evangelism, we mean moving into action to win the lost. The

Christian must be motivated to go out and win the world to

42

Christ. Because it will help people to practise what has

been taught at church and making sure evangelism becomes

part of the individual Christian’s main activity.

Again, in the words of Larbi’s “historical records

about the major charismatic movements of the 70s and the 80s

all stressed on personal and collective evangelization of

non-Christians. That is, the concept of personal salvation

and personal evangelism were their priority. In other words,

they all used person to person or door to door evangelism,

(ibid 296). Another type of evangelism that is use by

charismatic churches is Evangelistic Crusade. On this style,

Bishop Agyin-Asare (2009, 12) said that when he was called

by God in 1983, he started holding mass evangelism crusades

when he was as young as twenty-one years. It has been used

by many of the charismatic churches as a way of planting

churches and winning souls into the church. During these

crusades, the multitude is reached by the word of God and

many people usually give their lives to Christ. The

evangelistic crusade of Agyin-Asare has taken him throughout

43

the world and in many places; signs and wonders have

accompanied the gospel. Pages 120-128 of his book are full

of testimonies from people having been healed by Jesus

Christ, with the cover back page showing multitudes in his

tour of Asia and Europe.

Dag Heward-Mills also has an effective evangelistic crusade

named “Healing Jesus Crusade”. It has been held in many places in

Ghana both towns and villages. The crusades have been used

as a means of planting new churches and also strengthening

existing ones.

Another type of evangelistic approach of the

charismatic is the “Special Programmes”. These are specialised

programmes of various charismatic churches which aim at

winning people to Christ. The I C G C have programmes like

“The Greater Works Conference (July), The Destiny Summit

(October) and the Crossover Services on December 31 of every

year. The Lighthouse Chapel also have various kinds of

specialised programmes spanning from January to December in

every year. Other Charismatic churches like Word Miracle

Church International, Christian Action Faith, Fountain Gate

44

Chapel, and Kingdom Power Family International have one form

of special programme or the other which aims at winning

souls and strengthening the members of the church.

2.5 Personal Evangelism:

According to Barrette, (2004, 721) Personal Evangelism

“sometimes referred to as "one to one" or "personal work", is a

kind of evangelism when one Christian evangelizes to

typically one non-Christian, or only a few non-Christians,

in a private manner. This was the style of Jesus when He was

on the earth. He called the disciples one by one and His

disciples also called others to Him (John 1:40-47). Kim

(2000, 1) sees Personal Evangelism as one of the methods

Jesus used and states;

“We should not neglect any of the methods Jesus and

his disciples used in their day. The characteristics

and advantages of preaching the gospel to

individuals are that evangelists get to meet with

the individuals face to face and thus develop a more

45

intimate relationship with them. Preaching the

gospel to individuals has been found to be more

effective than preaching to the crowds in leading

people to the Lord and contributes more to church

growth in the long run.”

One of the effective ways of reaching people for the Kingdom

of God is through Personal Evangelism. This occurred in the

New Testament following persecution in Jerusalem. The

disciples, except for the apostles, were scattered and

evangelized everywhere throughout the land. In recent times,

many have been encouraged to go out individually to "win

souls," and a number of churches have concentrated on

personal evangelism in connection with visitation,

contacting and talking to people in their homes ( www.the -

highway.com). The study seeks to find out how efficient and

successful have personal evangelism been in the charismatic

churches.

In the words of Burroughs (1934), personal evangelism is

"winning to Christ by a proclamation of the evangel, the good

46

news of Christ. Its main aim is to lead the sinner to Christ

for the salvation of the soul so that he/she can become a part

of the Church which is the body of Christ”. Personal

evangelism has the advantage of being direct and personal,

establishing a personal relationship with each other. A

Christian’s daily task is to share the Good News with

friends and family members who come around him/her. It is a

way of personally witnessing to a person about Christ.

Personal evangelism, therefore, refers to a Christian trying

to help someone else get saved by accepting Christ as

his/her savior by faith. Kim (2000) asserts that the

ministry of Jesus involved meeting people “one on one” and

calling them to become His disciples. Those who met Jesus

personally became evangelists themselves, proclaimed God's

Word, and expanded the church. This means that Personal

Evangelism can be an effective way to ensure Church growth

both quantitatively and qualitatively.

2.5.1 Approaches to Personal Evangelism

47

Every concept or idea must have a proper mode of

implementation and approach. It may also have some

challenges. One of the challenges of personal evangelism is

to really get to know people and to present the gospel to

them where they are. Because in personal evangelism, you do

not wait for the person to come to you, you go where they

are. Martin (1978), dealing with the approach to personal

evangelism said;

“The most common and perhaps the most effective

biblical method of evangelism is the sharing of

the Good News on a person-to-person basis as we

come in contact with others. Sometimes just being

a friend or listening to another person’s troubles

becomes a point of contact. It is usually best not

to pounce upon a prospect and start off on him. It

is best to wait for an opportunity to open. Some

think we should give the unbeliever a “believe-or-

be-damned” ultimatum, but witnessing is relating

to persons, and people have feelings. We need to

48

take their feelings into consideration”, (as cited in

Methods of Evangelism volume 13 no. 4).

The Christian soul winner must see the non-christian in the

light of God’s word. The depravity of humanity must be

explained to him/her. According to Parker (1961, 59), “When

the gospel brings people to see themselves in the light of

God's law and holiness, they realize how short they have

fallen from His glory”.

In the Soul Winner, Spurgeon (1995, 21-22) explains soul-

winning as “instructing a man that he may know the truth of

God”, is not a hype, emotionalism, or trickery of any kind.

Rather, it is setting forth its reasoned order those aspects

of the gospel that one must believe in order to be saved.

The content of the gospel cannot be changed; it must be

presented in the context of man’s sinful and lost condition

as the solution and in a way that forcefully impresses upon

the hearer the great need to be born again. This leads to

conviction of sin, simple faith in Christ, unfeigned

49

repentance from sin, real change of life, true prayer, and a

willingness to obey the Lord’s commandments. When the

gospel is presented with love and compassion to the unsaved

person, the resulted will be a regenerated soul. It is

important that the preacher does not hurriedly walk people

through the gospel but to take time and make sure one in

convince by the Holy Spirit in accepting Christ as the Lord

and Savior.

2.5.2 Jesus’ Style of Personal Evangelism

The mission of Jesus to the world was that of soul

winning. He was a soul winner who not only preached to the

multitude but also had time to go to one person at a time

like Zacchaeus and the Samaritan woman. As stated earlier

there are many styles or kinds of evangelism. Jesus the

Master evangelist used various kinds of approach to get to

His audience. One of His styles was to personally, “one to

one” talk to people about the kingdom of God. Jesus reached

out to an uninterested generation by becoming a caring soul

50

winner. Jesus stepping into Simon Peter’s boat got Him into

“Peter’s world.” The first step in making a difference in a

person’s life is to get into his or her world. On the

shore, Jesus was standing; but in the boat, He was sitting

down. That means Jesus was not in a hurry as seen in Luke

5:3.” In the opinion of Martin (1978), the personal

evangelism approach of Jesus can be seen by observing the

thirty-five personal interviews of Jesus as recorded in the

Gospels. One of these interviews can be seen in John 4:5-42.

In this section the study examines few of His

encounters with people in the Gospels: Firstly, the calling

of the disciples was the first step in the implementation

process of the establishment of the Kingdom of God. The

disciples were called one after the other by Jesus. In John

1:39-42 Jesus called the first disciples which included

Andrew, he later went away and testified to Simon his

brother and he also became a disciple of Jesus. In verse 42,

He found Philip and called him; Philip later found Nathaniel

and also called him to Jesus. They all became His

51

disciples who later preached the gospel to the nations.

Jesus personally met people individually and called them to

become His disciples. Secondly, a tax collector, Zacchaeus

caught the attention of Jesus as seen in Luke 19:2-5 and it

led to his repentance and confession. Thirdly, in John 4:7-

42 Jesus had an encounter with a Samaritan woman. The

discussion led to the woman recognizing Jesus as the Messiah

who has been promised. The revelation of the woman’s past by

Jesus led her to run to the city amidst shouting that she

has seen the Messiah. The whole city later came with her to

the scene to see this Man who has revealed the past. Jesus

had a personal encounter with her alone and the woman later

became witness who turned the city on with her testimony.

In the words of Kim (2000), those who met Jesus

personally became evangelists themselves, proclaimed God's

Word, and expanded the church; they followed the examples of

Jesus. Personal evangelism was a practice of the early

christians. As part of their evangelism style, they went

52

from house to house preaching the Word of God as recorded in

Acts 5:42. They witnessed to the crowd and also had time

with individuals on personal levels. This is shown in the

encounter of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. God pulled

him out from the success of miracles in the crowd in Samaria

to attend to a single person. The encounter led to the

eunuch accepting Christ as Lord and been baptized

immediately (Acts 8: 26-40).

2.5.3 Paul’s Style of Personal Evangelism

The book of Acts handles the accounts of personal

evangelism of Paul. During the first missionary journey, he

witnessed to the proconsul of that region and he came to

know Christ on the island of Paphos (Acts 13:6-13). On his

second missionary journey, following the direction and the

vision of the Holy Spirit, he went to Philippi, the first

city in Macedonia province (Acts 16:12). And while looking

for a place of prayer on the Sabbath, he met a woman named

Lydia and evangelized to her. Through that encounter she

53

and her whole family repented and were baptized (Acts 16:13-

15). At another time, he and Silas were beaten and thrown

into prison because they casted out a demon from a slave

girl. They ministered to her personally (Acts 16:18-23). The

salvation of the girl led to the prison guard asking how he

can be saved. The encounter with the prison guard led to the

salvation of the whole family (Acts16: 18-33).

During his third missionary journey in Corinth, Paul

evangelized to Aquila and Priscilla, who shared his

occupation of tent making (Acts 18: 13). This led to them

becoming co-workers with Paul in the city of Corinth. A

Christian therefore should be able to make friends with his

fellow workers and evangelize them in a friendly way. At

Caesarea when he was imprisoned, Paul did not only testify

to his faith publicly but also to individuals in need of

Christ. According to Larsen (1992, 55), Paul rejoiced seeing

individuals converted to the Savior, and he did not abandon

them. In his entire missionary journey, he preached the

gospel with the crowd as well individuals. Paul’s approach

to soul winning was seen in Acts 20:20 when he said, “How I

54

shrank not from declaring unto you anything that was

profitable, and teaching you publicly, and from house to

house”. His evangelism was passionate and a combination of

variety of methods.

Two things prove how Paul deemed personal evangelism as

important. (1) He reminded the believers in Ephesus that he

had preached all things that would be helpful to them and

had taught them "publicly" and "from house to house" (Acts

2:20). This means not only was he satisfied with preaching

the Gospel in a great scale, publicly, but also that he went

house to house to evangelize individually. (2) Paul

testifies to the Colossians that it was his desire to

admonish everyone and teach them with all wisdom (Col.

1:28). Larsen (1992) sees Paul as dealing with ninety-nine

different persons and mentioned their names his epistles.

And that showed his deep concern for individuals. Among

those individuals Paul evangelized were Felix, the Roman

governor, and his Jewish wife Drusilla. Before Felix, Paul

talked about righteousness, self-control, and the coming

55

judgment and made initiative for his evangelism (Acts 24:24-

25). According to the last part of Acts, Paul was put in a

guarded house in Rome. There he accepted everyone who

visited him and shared the Gospel with that person (Acts

28:30-31). Paul's evangelism shows how important it is for a

Christian to make a priority of proclaiming the Gospel of

Christ. Time to time there may be some hindrance and

opposition but when evangelizing according to God's will,

even those oppositions become certainly good opportunities

for evangelism. Throughout his epistles Paul explains that

proclaiming the Gospel was his calling and that he executed

his work of personal evangelism faithfully (Acts 20:24).

2.6 The Role of the Holy Spirit in Personal Evangelism

Through the work of the Holy Spirit disciples are made.

The book of Acts is all about the Acts of the Apostles that

Jesus continued to do through the Holy Spirit. Jesus advised

the disciples to stay in Jerusalem until they are empowered

for witness (Luke 24:48, Acts 1:8). It is important to note

56

that after Jesus ascended to the throne of God to sit at the

right hand of the Father in heaven, He also sent His Holy

Spirit to be with His disciples. Through the Holy Spirit,

Peter, who was once a coward who betrayed Jesus and ran

away, stood up to preach to thousands of people on the day

of Pentecost (Acts 2:41). On that day, Jesus began to use

the believers to continue His work through the Holy Spirit.

Within days and certainly weeks, the work of the Holy Spirit

done through the apostles and the other disciples of Jesus

added thousands of people to the Church. It was the Holy

Spirit who anointed and empowered believers to preach the

Gospel and make disciples with boldness. Philip who was

evangelizing in Samaria with the power of God heard the

voice of the Holy Spirit and felt the calling to go to Gaza

where there were not many people (Acts 8:26). He was led to

the Ethiopian eunuch, and after some discussion, through the

Holy Spirit the eunuch was converted to the Christian faith

(Acts 8:29).

Dr. Prakash Yesudian (2001, 254) quotes Ramchandran Rajkumar

as saying that “Power, love, wisdom and boldness all come

57

from the Holy Spirit. When we depend on Him, He enables us

to be witnesses for Christ.”

Likewise, the work of the Holy Spirit continues to be

accomplished through the lives of believers around the

world. Soul-Winners in contemporary times need the Holy

Spirit in order do effective evangelism. The disciples of

Jesus were commanded to wait in Jerusalem to receive the

Holy Spirit. They were told that the Holy Spirit would come

upon them and baptize them with power to be witnesses in

Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the

earth. Jesus commanded them that they should wait until they

received the Holy Spirit, because they could not do the work

of God without Him. If they needed Him then, Soul-Winners

certainly need Him now more than ever. Evangelism is

actually the work of the Holy Spirit, it is His compassion,

it is His will that none should perish, it is His command to

go, it is His Word (message) being preached, it is His call

(invitation) to the lost, it is His responsibility to

convict, and it is His promise to save (John 16:8).

Therefore, there is no way soul-winners can do effective

58

evangelism without Him. Larsen (1992, 112) states that given

man’s moral inability and indeed his total spiritual

disability, we are talking about something that is

impossible apart from the mighty work of God Himself in the

gospel of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. And

that we must not fail to view the supernatural and

miraculous work of the Spirit as essential to every aspect

of evangelism.

Even though there are a lot of talk in charismatic

churches about the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues, but

in most cases not much about is talked about in His help in

evangelism. In Eph 6:17, Paul says that the sword of the

Spirit is the word of God. It is the Holy Spirit which is

going to move powerfully through the land to convict and

convert sinners, and purify them. Moreover, the Apostle Paul

says that the Bible is the Holy Spirit's chosen tool to

bring people to Himself, and to bring revival and

reformation. Moreover, Paul tells believers to stay alert

and to persevere, indicating that praying in the Spirit is a

59

difficult and arduous task that requires our full attention.

Paul doesn't give a list of the types of things we are to

ask for when we pray in the Spirit but only mentions one

thing. This one thing must have been uppermost on Paul's

mind. He asks them to pray that "words may be given to me in

opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the

Gospel." (Eph 6:19). It is that understanding that soul-

winners must pray for from the Holy Spirit in recent times.

How does the Spirit move in evangelism? In Ephesians 6,

Paul clearly indicates that the Holy Spirit uses the Bible

to make the Gospel known, and the Holy Spirit works through

the words of the Bible when it is boldly proclaimed as it

ought to be (Eph 6:20). The Holy Spirit blows where he will,

changing people's hearts to receive the Gospel (John 3:8) in

preparation for the Word of God that comes to them in the

Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ boldly

proclaimed. "Faith comes through hearing, and hearing

through the word of Christ." (Rom. 10:17). “Each conversion

is a unique demonstration of the Spirit’s genius” (ibid,

60

112). The evangelists or the soul-winner must therefore pray

for the bold proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with

the help of the Holy Spirit. In the words of Larsen;

“because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we

will be witnesses for Christ (ibid 24).

2.7 The Importance of Personal Evangelism

Evangelism is necessary and crucial for the existence of

church itself. Just as fire keeps its flames by continuously

burning, churches exist to preach the gospel and this is the

very reason why they exist. Cecil (1952, 24), stating the

necessity of evangelism in the church said “The New Testament

makes it clear that the church is to take the Gospel to the

world. It is extremely important for the health of the church

that leaders continue to make courageous plans for

evangelism”. One of the most effective ways of the church in

carting out its mandate is Personal Evangelism. Stressing on

the importance of Personal Evangelism, Monro & William (1968,

14), said "the witnessing fellowship of laymen is destined to

become the focal point of power in the church and God is going

61

to speak through the witnessing community in the decades

ahead." This confirms Chafin’s (1966, 104) position in

discussing personal evangelism when he said “No one segment

of the church will play a more important part in rethinking

the church's corporate witness than the informed, inspired,

committed laity.” He, stressing on the importance of lay

evangelism said; the most effective way of making Christ known

is for one person to share the gospel with another. To him

personal evangelism is more important than great revivals and

crusades, or even the pastor and his preaching (Ibid 117). The

passage reflects the importance of Personal Evangelism in

preaching the gospel. Personal Evangelism is the essence of

gospel preaching. Because it is the ultimate goal and because

salvation is personal and the decision and the confession of

sins can be made only through personal evangelism.

2.8 Follow-up and Discipleship:

Douglas M. Cecil (2003, 200), says follow-up usually

happens with a new believer after the person trusts Christ,

while discipleship happens over a period of time with any

62

believer. And moreover, it is the follow-up that starts the

discipleship process. In view of this, one may say that most

often it is through personal evangelism that a soul-winner

can effectively get a new believer grounded in the Christian

Faith through long-term follow-up in systematic discipleship

process or manner.

The Eermans Dictionary of the Bible (2000, 348) defines

“Disciple” as a follower, pupil, or adherent of a teacher or

religious leader. Consequently, the opinion of Cecil

(2003,207) that Christians or soul-winners are to be in the

business of helping to make committed disciples of Jesus

Christ and not just inspiration junkies, is certainly a

timely call to the church. John F. MacArthur (1991, 106-107)

suggests three steps in discipling a new believer: First, is

to teach biblical truths on a personal level from the Word

of God. Second, the believer must be helped to translate the

biblical truth learnt into appropriate attitudes and

actions. And third, the soul-winner with the help of the

Holy Spirit must work with a new disciple to solve problems

biblically. One may suggest a fourth crucial step, that is,63

Reproduction which is advocated by Agyeman-Duah (2008, 56)

who states that; “He commissioned His disciples to reproduce

spiritually and people testified to that effect … (Act

17:6). Jesus intended for the disciples to produce His

Likeness in and through the Church.”

64

CHAPT

ER THREE

METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction:

The research was conducted through the survey method.

Both qualitative and quantitative processes were used in the

study. The approaches were narrative, descriptive and

reflective; it was used to gather information from

respondents per their opinions on personal evangelism and

its impact on individual church members, and the growth of

65

their churches in relation to the great commission in

Matthew 28:19.

The statistics and the information used were the result of

the survey that the study undertook among different

Charismatic Churches in the Accra West District, in the

Accra Metropolis. The data was gathered through interviews

and questionnaires. The works of various scholars and

writers in the forms of journals, articles, bible

dictionaries, encyclopaedias and internet materials on

evangelism and church growth were consulted and reviewed in

order to give a firm grounding to the research.

3.2 Area of Research/Population:

The research bordered mainly on respondents’ personal

details and their observations on the practice of personal

evangelism within the charismatic churches in the Accra West

District, and its impact on church growth and the spiritual

life of the individual Christian in recent times.

66

The researcher found it appropriate to select these churches

as the area of study due to the extent of the seeming apathy

within them towards personal evangelism which hitherto had

been the hallmark of the charismatic movement in Ghana.

In order to come out with any conclusive fact that personal

evangelism has become unpopular among charismatic church

members in Ghana, interviews with six(6) pastors from

charismatic churches within the Accra West District were

undertaken, and seventy(70) valid returned questionnaires

that were answered by members of seven(7) charismatic

churches of the population sample were analyzed.

3.3 Study Sampling:

The sampling was done based on the following factors:

Proximity: The researcher’s milieu being within the Accra

West District, and his familiarity with most of the leaders

and members of the charismatic churches in the vicinity made

the data collection easier.

67

Limitedness of time and expansiveness of areas of

population: The selection of the sampling which was limited

to some charismatic churches within Accra West District was

done with regard to the meagre time allotted for the

research and the wide-ranging of the general population in

order to meet the deadline, and also come out with a précis

and a well-researched work.

3.4 Data Collection / Instruments:

Scholarly works: Data on personal evangelism by both local

writers and other scholars were gathered during the

literature reviews and analysed. The information bordered

mainly on the New Testament meaning of evangelism, overview

on Biblical foundations for evangelism, the approaches of

some Ghanaian Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches on

evangelism, the role of Personal Evangelism in church

68

growth, the role of the Holy Spirit in Evangelism, and

Follow-up and Discipleship.

Interviews of some charismatic pastors: In order to come out

with first hand information on how some charismatic pastors

really think about personal evangelism and the seeming

unpopularity of it in recent times, six (6) of them from

within the population were interviewed. Three of them were

in the persons of Rev. Ernest Manful (I.C.G.C, Kasoa), Rev.

John-Bray Kumah (Fountain Gate Chapel) and Pastor Bruce-

Tagoe (Kingdom Power Family Int.). The rest of the

interviewees preferred their names withheld.

Questionnaires: The views of general members of seven

charismatic churches and those of the students of the School

of Theology and Missions of the Central University College

within the population sample were sought on personal

evangelism through questionnaires. Seventy (70) valid

returned questionnaires were analysed alongside with the

69

answers of the questionnaires of interviews conducted with

the six (6) pastors.

3.5 Data Analysis Methods:

The data from the study was analyzed using statistical,

comparative, descriptive and inferential procedures. Through

literature reviews, Scholarly works on evangelism in general

were analyzed and critiqued in relation to personal

evangelism.

The background details of pastors, general church members

and that of students were analyzed in groupings taking into

consideration their ages, sex, education, professions,

process of entrance into their various churches, and their

Christian lives in relation with personal evangelism.

Data on peoples’ views about how to revive the zeal for

personal evangelism, the unpopularity of personal

evangelism, and their impacts on church growth were analyzed

70

through both the inferential and statistical methods based

on their individual experiences as members of the various

charismatic churches sampled.

CHAPTER FOUR

Data Analysis

4.1 Introduction

This chapter shows the analysis of responses

obtained from the interviews and questionnaires

administered. Seventy (70) valid returned questionnaires

were analyzed together with the answers from the

71

questionnaires of the interviews conducted with the pastors

within the sample, and the results presented below to answer

the research questions.

4.2 Analysis

Section 1 (demographic data on respondents)

The bulk of respondents, 26 (37.1%) were aged between 25-

32yrs. This is shown on table 1 below. From the table, the

majority of respondents are young adults. In fact the

charismatic churches under the study are mainly made up of

young adults. Also in most churches, the duty of evangelism

and soul winning are done by the young adults. They are

always happy to see their churches grow and fellow

colleagues and friends come to the saving knowledge of

Christ. The results therefore are a reflection of the age

groupings and dominance of young adults in the various

charismatic churches.

72

Table 1. Age of Respondent

Age Of Respondents Frequency Percent

18-25yrs 20 28.6

25-32yrs 26 37.1

32-39yrs 15 21.4

40yrs and Above 9 12.9

Total 70 100.0

From table 2, the respondents also comprised 42 (60%) males

and 28 (40) females. The nature of the questionnaire did not

require a gender balance and thus the difference in the

individual populations. The study even though important to

the growth of every church, it was not so appealing to the

females and therefore some did not have much interest in

taking the questioners for answering.

Table 2. Sex of Respondent

73

Sex Or Respondents Frequency Percent

Male 42 60.0

Female 28 40.0

Total 70 100.0

The respondents were also predominantly

University graduates and secondary school leavers. About 3%

of respondents are however educated up to the elementary

level, with 16.7% being post graduates. The preference of

graduate was as a result of a number of students who were

available and willing to contribute to the study. Also some

of the graduates have theological backgrounds and are

intended to be pastors and ministers. The outcome study will

therefore help them to plan their evangelistic activities

for maximum results.

Chart 1.

74

PostgraduateGraduateSecondaryElementaryEducational Level of Respondents

40

30

20

10

0

Frequency

Educational Level of Respondents

Table 3 below shows the occupation of the individual

respondents.As many as 16 respondents did not indicate

their occupation. Of those who indicated their occupation,

13 (21.4%) are traders followed by teachers numbering 9(12.

9%)

Table 3 Occupation of respondents

Occupation ofRespondents

Frequency Percent

Caterer 1 1.4

75

Church Worker 1 1.4

Designer 3 4.3

Electrician 2 2.9

Evangelist 1 1.4

Finance Officer 1 1.4

Housewife 1 1.4

ICT Officer 2 2.9

Machine Engineer 1 1.4

Medical Doctor 2 2.9

Nil 16 22.8

Nurse 2 2.9

Officer Manager 1 1.4

Pastor 11 15.7

Purchasing Officer 2 2.9

Student 1 1.4

Teachers 9 12.9

Traders 13 21.4

Total 70 100

76

The 70 respondents were selected from the list

of churches for table 4. The highest number of respondents

was sampled from the International Central Gospel Church

(ICGC).The reason was due to proximity and availability of

despondence. Also members of the church were willing to

participate in the study since the outcome will go a long

way in the application for the best approach to soul winning

and church growth.

Table 4, Church membership

Church membership Frequency Percent

Generations Empowerment

Ministries16 22.9

International Central Gospel

Church35 50.0

Christ Ambassadors

Evangelistic Ministry7 10.0

77

Covenant Bible Church 6 8.6

Fountain Gate Chapel 2 2.9

Assemblies of God 2 2.9

Glorious Liberty 1 1.4Missing 1 1.4Total 70 100.0

The respondents have been members of their various

churches for at most 5years and above (Inferred from table 5

below). About 8(11.4%) respondents have been members of

their church for up to one year. This is

Section 2 (Response to Research Questions)

4.2.1 Are churches growing quantitatively based on the

effort of believers in personal evangelism?

Responses from an open ended interview of respondents

indicated that respondents became members of their various

churches through one of the means below:

78

They were among the pioneers selected to plant the

church and manage it

They were witnessed to by church members of their

current church

They read or listen to Christian literature produced by

their current church.

They attended a programmes organized by their current

church, got interested in the manner they fellowship and

so resolved to worship with them.

According to respondents, other people became members of

the church through evangelism and personal invitation by

members of the church.

Mostly pamphlets are used to invite would be members after

sharing the word of God with them. Once the person visits

the church to fellowship with them for the first time, the

person is taken through new convert and discipleship classes

after which the fellow is baptized to become a full member

of the church

79

Chart 2.

NoneSpecial invitationcards

Tapes and CDPam phlets

M aterials for inviting new com ers into the church

50

40

30

20

10

0

Frequency

M aterials for inviting new com ers into the church

The table above shows that 36(51%) of the

respondents used pamphlets to invite people to church, while

18(25.7%) employs the use of special invitation cards.

Also13 (18.5%) uses tapes and Cd’s to invite people to

church while 3(4.2) uses none of the above methods in their

evangelism and church growth approaches.

Based on this table, it is recommended that churches should

develop good pamphlets that carry the message of the gospel

in their drive for effective evangelism.80

Table 5. Length of Membership

Length of Membership Frequency Percent

Up to 1yr.

1-3yrs.

8

23

11.4

32.9

3-5yrs. 7 10.0

5yrs and Above 30 42.9

Missing 2 2.9Total 70 100.0

About 37.1% of these churches have also operated

for more than 5years running. The study intends to know how

churches in the district have felt within the last five

years and what have contributed to the growth of the

churches or otherwise. Also members of the churches would

81

be able to know what pertains to evangelistic activities in

the church

Table 6.How long assembly has been operating

How long respondent’s

church has been operating Frequency Percent

1-3yrs 17 24.3

3-5yrs.22 31.4

5yrs and above26 37.1

Missing 5 7.1Total 70 100.0

How long assembly has been

operating

82

How long respondent’s church Frequency

Percentage

1-3yrs

17 24.3

3-5yrs.

22 31.4

5yrs and above 26

37.1

Missing

5 7.1

Total

70 100

4.2.2 How can the zeal of believers to embark on effective

personal evangelism be revived?

83

Respondents understand personal evangelism to be the act of

preaching Christ to others and allowing what you preach to

reflect in your life. It also has to do with an individual

person going out to share the word of God with both

believers and non-believers. It’s a means of winning souls

for Christ.

According to respondents they normally witness to others

whenever the factors below prevail:

Anytime respondent is with a peer

Almost every day once there are people to share the

word of God with.

Whenever they are led by the Holy Spirit to witness to

someone

Respondents pointed out the following reasons which make

the act of evangelism to be quite difficult.

The cold reception received from people you intend to

share the word with.

84

You meet with people and you realise they are not

interested in your mission.

Sometimes an individual is also not well vested in what

exactly to share.

Feeling lazy to leave the comfort of ones’ home to go

round preaching to others.

People feel shy to share the word of God with others

To this end, fifty-eight respondents from chart 2 below

therefore indicated they find it difficult to witness to

others about Christ.

Twelve respondents however have no difficulty since:

They are led by the spirit and so all things are

possible.

As Christians, they have been commissioned to make

disciples for Christ and this must be done through

witnessing and sharing the word of God.

Souls must be won for Christ.

Sinners must be rescued from the gates of hell.

85

Chart 3.

NoYesRespondents who finds it difficult to witness about Christ

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Frequency

58

12

Respondents who finds it difficult to witness about Christ

86

From chart 3 above, majority of respondents are however

not discouraged to win souls for Christ. It shows that

58(82%) did not find it difficult to witness t people

individually while only 12(18%) finds it difficult telling

people about Christ.

Chart 4.

87

noyesRespondents encouraged to win souls

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Frequency

Respondents encouraged to win souls

The chart 4 above shows that 65(92.8%) are encouraged

and motivated to win souls while 5(7.2%) says they are not

encouraged to for soul winning.

Respondents indicated that the Holy Spirit helps them to

evangelise. From chart 5 below, about 93% agreed that the

Holy Spirit therefore has a role in personal evangelism. It

is the Holy Spirit that empowers them and teaches them how

to go about personal evangelism.

88

Chart 5.

2.86%

4.29%

92.86%

M issingNoYes

Holy Spirit has a role in personal evangelism

4.2.3 Has personal evangelism really become unpopular among

charismatic churches?

Chart 6 below indicates approximately 93% respondents as

saying that personal evangelism has become unpopular among

charismatic churches. This is observed from the fact that

though churches have made personal evangelism an activity on

their calendar,

The commitment of members to go out and evangelise is

low.

89

It is also quite rare to chance on charismatic

Christians on house to house evangelism. Evangelism has

been limited to radio broadcast, schools and preaching in

commuter buses.

Men and women are occupied by their jobs leaving them

with or no time to engage in personal evangelism.

The focuses of today’s preaching have shifted from the

great commission to prosperity-centred preaching, the

comfort of the preachers. This does not encourage the

zeal of members to be awakened.

1.43%

31.43%

67.14%

M issingNoYes

Personal evangelism has becom e unpopular am ong charism atic churches in recent tim es

Chart 6

90

Section 3 (Church growth)

4.2.4 Factors that account for the numeric growth of the

church.

The growth of a church is dependent on factors that

draw people to visit the church, worship with them and then

proceed to become permanent and committed members of the

church. These factors include, outreach programmes organized

by the church, the rate at which the church conducts

personal evangelism and the resultant number of souls won.

Some people also become members of a church through

their personal experiences and challenges. Such people

intuitively are led spiritually to fellowship with a

particular church.

4.3 Summary of Analysis:

It is evident from the analysis the central role played

by evangelism in the growth of the church today. From the

responses, it could be generalised that people are still

interested in personal evangelism not only to increase the

membership of their churches but most importantly to win

91

souls for Christ. Such people however require warm reception

from people they approach.

The apparent reason for the cold reception people receives

when they go out to evangelize may come from the

modernization of the society which looks unwelcome for

visitors. This means that the church should change its

approach as far as personal evangelism is concerned. Instead

of walking to somebody you do not know or knocking the door

of a stranger, the church can create some awareness in the

community which will give prior notice to the people as the

intention of the church in carrying out evangelism in the

community.

Secondly church leaders must make it a priority to

increase the zeal of their church members for personal

evangelism. This is because the work of the pastor is to

equip the saints for the work of the ministry. Whenever an

urgent call for the salvation of souls is made from the

pulpit, it will be seen as crucial and members will adhere

to the clarion call. The salvation of the souls of the

unbelievers must be seen as the seen as the prioritize

92

mission of the church. Above all church members must

commit themselves to personal evangelism. This is because

the Scriptures say in Proverbs 11:30 “he that wins a soul is

wise”. Jesus also said, just as the Father has sent me so

send I you.” (John 20:21).

CHAPTER FIVE

5.1 Conclusions

The objectives of the study were attempts to find out

whether the seeming unpopularity of Personal Evangelism in

the Charismatic Churches was factual, and if yes, come out

with possible solutions. Having analyzed interviews and

questionnaires administered to few pastors and some

charismatic churches’ members within the Accra West District,

it became clear that indeed unpopularity of Personal

Evangelism has permeated contemporary Ghanaian Charismatic

churches.

Furthermore, it was agreed by the pastors interviewed that

for the church to see growth both qualitatively and

quantitatively, Personal Evangelism is the best approach. In

93

the words of Rev Ernest Manful of ICGC Kasoa I quote, “my

brother if the church can encourage and motivate the members

to win one soul a year and keep him/her disciple, a hundred

(100) member church can grow above one thousand (1000) within

five years.

5.2 Observations

The research has revealed a few negatives consequences such

as media evangelism which has eclipsed Personal Evangelism

thus creating further superficial christians at the expense

of genuine Disciples of Christ who are well mentored through

the processes of personal evangelism.

Also it has been observed that majority of people find it

easier just giving a tract or pamphlet to somebody, inviting

him/her to church. It looks so easier because one may not

need to talk so much whether the person is familiar or a

stranger. In addition, the church members lack adequate

training in the area of Personal Evangelism and the skills to

interact with people in sharing the gospel.

94

It also became obvious that obedience to the “Great

Commission” in Matthew 28:19 is less adhered to by the

majority of Charismatic Churches’ members in recent times,

thus militating against the spiritual growth of most

christians and the vision and goal of the church. Therefore,

apparent revival in the Charismatic Churches in the area of

Personal Evangelism is urgently needed, not only to increase

the membership of churches but most importantly to win souls

for Christ.

5.3 Recommendations

From the study, it has become obvious that when the

secret of church growth through personal evangelism is

discovered, the will of Jesus Christ for His Church would

have been achieved. The following are the recommendations to

curb unpopularity of Personal Evangelism in the church of

contemporary times, and also to bring about revival in the

carrying out of the “Great commission” in Matthew 28:19.

95

Prayers: Christians must be encouraged by all means to

sincerely pray for church growth through personal

evangelism and be passionate about the lives of the

unbelievers.

Vibrant Evangelistic Teams: Permanent vibrant

specialized evangelistic teams for hospitals, streets,

homes, marketplaces, buses and “trotro” must be set up in

all churches.

Evangelistic Sermons: Sermons must be preached about

evangelism frequently, emphasizing the need for

evangelistic teams to be sustained at all cost.

Support Team: Supporting teams made up of people who

cannot join the evangelistic teams because of their job

or tangible excuses must be formed to back them with

monthly financial aid or in kind.

96

Systematic Evangelistic Training: Specialized

evangelistic training must be given to the various

evangelistic teams to go out to evangelize in hospitals,

streets, homes, marketplaces, and bus and “trotro”

terminals.

Short and long-term Educational Opportunities: In order

to encourage continuous involvement of all, there must be

short and long-term educational opportunities offered

internally or through assistance from outside sources.

Solutions to Personal Problems of Potential Evangelists:

The whole church must plan and acts together for church

growth on the basis of personal evangelism by finding

solutions to problem of potential evangelistic team

members who are busy with their family issues and other

social issues.

97

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